Night stay in Bangalore airport - Rethink

I had been to Mangalore a few weeks ago, to attend a friend's wedding. I had booked my travel in Kingfisher airlines (one of the budget airlines in India). The flight tickets were booked at least 3 months in advance. It is a direct flight from Chennai to Mangalore and I got a good deal - the round trip cost only Rs.8K. But, the actual fun(?) started only 2 days before the trip.

I got a call from Kingfisher airlines, 2 days before the trip. I was told that the direct flight to Mangalore was canceled and they've to put me in a different flight. Since there were no other direct Kingfisher flights to Mangalore, I decided to take a flight to Bangalore, stay there at night and reach Mangalore, the next day morning. (Also read: Panambur Beach in Mangalore - Extremely beautiful)

After reaching Bangalore airport, I went to the Karnataka Tourism Counter to find out if there are any hotels nearby, for an overnight stay. The guy in the counter gave me a brochure from the nearby hotel, which said "Rs.2700 for a room". In a country where people pay "Rs.2700" as monthly rent for their house, "Rs.2700" for an overnight stay sounded too much. I asked him "Are there any other hotels in the vicinity". He said "No Sir ! This is the only hotel that is close to the airport. You have to go to the city which is 30km away, to find a hotel". Since I didn't travel with my family, I decided to stay in the Bangalore domestic airport overnight.

Bangalore domestic airport didn't have a proper lounge for overnight stay. I ended up sleeping on the chair, in sitting posture. The chairs in the airport didn't have any cushion and they aren't comfortable at all. Somehow, I managed to spend an entire night in the airport. In the morning, I got up and took the early morning flight to Mangalore. Thank god, I didn't travel with my family. Otherwise, I would've to take the hotel room for Rs.2700.  (Also read: Traveling near restrooms isn't fun)

The new Bangalore airport is 30 - 40 kms away from the city. Most of the hotels are located at least 20 - 30 kms away from the airport. Since the airport is new and is in a remote place, there are not many hotels around for a "common man" to stay overnight. Of course, "common man" in India doesn't fly :)

Tips to get a good deal on flight, hotel and car

Once you have decided your destination & your trip duration, you are ready to make the travel arrangements. How do you get the best deal when making the travel arrangements for your trip? This blog post summarizes the strategies that I follow to get good deals when booking flights, hotel and car.

Booking flight tickets / car

Most of the times, airfare is your single biggest expense during your trip planning. Search on multiple websites like Hotwire.com, Expedia.com, and Orbitz.com. They would list a number of deals to select from. For example, if the listing shows deals from American Airlines, then go to American Airline's website and check the price. Most of the times, you'll get a better price if you directly book through the airline website. You can also adopt the same strategy for booking a car for your trip. Most of the times, I get good deals when I book directly from Alamo Car Rental.

Booking Hotel

The strategy that I adopt for booking flight tickets/car doesn't work for me when trying to book a hotel. Many times, websites such as Hotwire.com, and Hotels.com, provide good deals for stay. I've had lots of good experiences and pleasant surprises with my Hotwire.com booking. You'll get a 5 star hotel room, for a 3-star price. The only limitation with Hotwire.com is that they have hotels listed only from prominent places & cities. For example, you may not be able to find a good deal for a hotel room near National Parks, through Hotwire. You may have to try Hotels.com, in such situations.

If you want to find a really cheap accommodation, try Motel6.com. The Motel6 hotel rooms are in decent condition and at the same time, their price is also reasonable. Motel6 is for people who just want a place  to sleep for a night. You may have to read reviews carefully before you book a "Motel" for your trip. Most of the times, Motels are occupied by lorry drivers & low income people.

General Tips

• Even if the price given in websites such as Hotwire, matches the one given in airlines/car-rental web site, I would recommend booking through the airline/car-rental website. Booking done through airlines website are cancel-able & hence, you'll get credit, if you happen to cancel your trip in the last minute. Websites such as Hotwire, do not allow you to cancel the booking.

• When booking a rental car or hotel or airline, do not say that you are a corporate customer. The pricing for corporate customers is typically high. There are handful of chains that provide discounted fare for corporate customers. You have to be cautious about that. (To validate this, try selecting the "Corporate Customer" option and you'll notice that the prices are bumped by 10 - 20%)

• When you try searching for deals through web portals, the web portals will remember your session information through cookies. If you are wandering in the same portal for a long time, they'll increase the fare after some time. You'll be tempted to book right away (before the fare goes further up). Don't get caught in the trap. Try using the same web portal through a different browser instance (For example, if you have been using Firefox for the search, use IE for booking). You'll notice that the fare is different/lesser, now. This gimmick is not done by popular websites such as Hotwire. However, I've seen this happening in a few websites.
  

• Some of the airline websites allow you to book flight tickets + car + hotel (as a single package). In most of the cases, the combined fare would exceed the cost of booking them independently through different websites.
  

• Do not try to book tickets from websites whose primary business is not selling travel packages. For example, if you start your booking of tickets from websites like Tripadvisor.com, you'll be charged a premium for their service.

• Try to book cars from rental facilities in airport. You'll have the flexibility of 'renting' & 'returning' your car any time. Car rental facilities outside the airport are open only during the regular business hours. So, you may not be able to return the car at your convenience. You'll have to hold on to the car until the shop opens, the next day. You'll be unnecessarily paying extra charges for the additional time.
  

• Car rental facilities outside airport typically give good deals for weekend rentals (i.e., Fri evening to Monday morning).
  

• Some websites offer discounts when you pre-pay for the rental. If you know for sure that you are going to travel on a given day, pre-pay the costs. At times, you would get up to 10% discount on the fare (Alamo.com, offers pre-pay discounts for car rentals).

[* I have not used priceline.com, that much. So, my findings do not include the experiences from priceline.com]

Also read:

Places to see in USA

How to plan a sightseeing trip in US?

How do you plan a sight seeing trip in US? What is the process involved? What are some useful websites to gather information regarding your travel, places to see, hotels to stay, etc., How to get the best deals when booking car, hotel, flights etc.,? Where can you get some useful feedback from 'real people' (as opposed to just marketing blurb)? You'll find answers to all such  questions in this post.

What qualifies me to write this post?! Well, I've visited 32 different states in US and have made at least 15 sight seeing trips in a row with my family (which includes a toddler). I'm more than excited to share the art of planning for a trip, with all of you. (Disclaimer: The more trips you've made in US, the less useful this post will be to you.)
 
In the best interest of my readers' time & to improve the readability of the post, I've decided to make it as a multi-part writeup. The first part will talk about 'Selecting the Destination and Places to See'.

The first thing you should decide when planning a trip, is your travel destination - "Where do you want to go? Do you want your vacation to be relaxing or tightly packed? Are you interested in doing a lot of activities or do you just want to do sight seeing? Do you want to drive to a destination or do you want to fly? Lots of these factors go in, during the decision making process. Also, it depends on your family members, their health/fitness conditions, your interests, etc.,

Once you have identified a set of destinations for your trip, the next thing you have to find out is "Is this a right time to go there?" For example, you should visit places like New Hampshire in Fall, Portland during Spring, & Glen Canyon or Crater Lake during summer. Your timing of the trip is very important and it influences your travel destination.

The third big question is "Will the trip or destination fit my budget?". If you have budgeted just $200, all you can do is a simple road trip to a nearby place. At the same time, if you have $2000 or more, you can do a fun-filled trip to Hawaii or you can take a cruise. So, your budget for the trip is very important in deciding the "destination".

The fourth question that you should ask is "How many days do I want the trip to be?". The number of days of your trip is dependant on your work schedule, the destination, your family members, your budget etc., Most of my trips were about 3 - 5 days long and it worked out well for me.

After finalizing your destination, you have to identify the list of places to see in/around that destination. You need to do a lot of research for this. Here are some tips:

1. Look at Trip Advisor. This website gives lot of useful tips regarding 'places to see' with real user reviews.  
2. Visit About.com. They have lots of interesting articles about special destinations (such as New York, Hawaii, etc.,) 
3. Visit US National Park Service website. This website provides useful information regarding all National Parks in US, monuments & historical sites 
4. Search Wikipedia. Wikipedia gives information regarding the destination, culture, people, important land marks, etc.,
5. Look at State/City web sites (or Chamber of Commerce websites). Each state/city in US maintains a web site and those websites have tourist/visitors section listing the 'sight seeing places'. For example, this is the website for the City of Idaho Falls and there is a link for visitors.     
6. Search through Yahoo Answers. Yahoo Answers has a travel section and there are so many active participants there. You can get lots of useful tips, suggestions and help from the folks, there
7. Look at the List of Places to See in USA article 
8. Do Google Search. A simple "places to see in " would show thousands of entries. Of course, you need to read 100s of articles to gather information
9. Search Google Maps. Google Maps also provide some information regarding the attractions near to a place/locality. Just type "attractions near " in the search box. You'll see lots of results. 
10. All modern day GPS devices provide travel details regarding nearby attractions, museums, historical sites, etc.,. They make your trip planning very easy. If you have postponed the job of 'selecting the places to see' till the day of your trip, just buy or rent a GPS. You are all set for the trip. In fact, GPS helped me very much during our road trip. Otherwise, we would've got stranded.

Hopefully, this post gives you enough tips to select your travel destination and the list of places to see in each of those destinations. The next post in this series will give you tips regarding How to get the best deals for airline, car, and hotel booking?.

List of places to see in USA

This blog post contains the "List of places to see in USA" including top U.S attractions, important sight seeing places, travel experiences, and tips for planning your trips in USA. I have shared my travel experiences to these places. Hope you find them useful.

Also read:  

How do you plan a sightseeing trip in US?
Tips to get good deals on flight, hotel and car

Arizona (Trip Planner)

RV Driving and Motor Home Experience
Sedona & Flagstaff
Places in Phoenix
Navajo Canyon Ferry
Glen Canyon, Page  

Miami & Bahamas  (Trip Planner)

Royal Carribean Cruise Experiences

Maui, Hawaii

Maui Trip Planning - Tips & Recommendations
Maui Trip Preparations
Maui Parasailing
Hana Lava Tube & Haleakala Crater Visit
Trip to Iao Valley, Tropical Plantation, and Snorkeling
Maui Atlantic Submarine Tour
Banyan Tree, Jodo Mission, Luau Visit

Washington DC, New York & Niagara (Trip Planner)

Pittsburgh Trip, Pennysylvania
Visit to Niagara Falls, Canada
Visit to Liberty Statue & Ellis Islands, New York
Visit to New York Downtown, New York
Washington DC Trip

Denver & South Dakota

Colorado, Denver & Mount Rushmore

Oregon, Seattle Vancouver (Trip Planner)

Seattle, WashingtonVancouver, Canada
Portland, Oregon
Columbia River Highway, Oregon
Crater Lake & Mount Shashta

Wyoming, Utah & Idaho (Trip Planner)

Yellow Stone Attractions

Road Trip (Southern States) (Trip Planner)

Oklahoma City, Oklahoma
Little Rock, Arkansas
Memphis, Tennessee
Atlanta, Georgia
Birmingham, Alabama
Jackson, Mississippi
Shreveport/Monroe, Louisiana
Dallas, Texas

New Hampshire / Vermont (Trip Planner)

Fall Foliage Colors Trip

Chicago, Illinois (Trip Planner)

Chicago Trip Experiences

Las Vegas & Grand Canyon, Nevada

California

Mendocino - A stay in Cabin
Death Valley VisitSacramento Day Trip
San Francisco Downtown / Golden Gate Bridge
Carmel by the Sea
Los Angeles (Disney Land/Universal Studios)